Why are American students failing? Because American teachers can’t write.
I received an e-mail from my children’s middle school principal today. The subject line read “March E-Mail to Parents.”
Maybe the guy isn’t an English major, but any teacher should be able to write a decent letter. Were I grading this in a basic Business Writing class, I would give it a D. My comments in bold:
Dear Parents:
This is my March email to parents.
You think? Does the writer really need to tell us when the subject of the e-mail is “March E-Mail to Parents?"
I want to give you some additional information about MAP testing.
Do you “want to” or are you going to? Does the reader really care about what you want? (No.) Also, to what is this information additional?
As you are aware, these tests are very important to both Wildwood Middle School and the Rockwood School District.
**Assumes I am aware of the tests' import. Perhaps I’m not. **
Our testing window begins after Spring Break during the first week in April and runs until April 19th.
The tests are used to: